NASA Will Use 3D Printers In Space

Just days after 3D Printers created the first gun that actually fires bullets, NASA has announced that they will be using 3D printers in space.

“The 3D printer that we’re going to fly on space station will actually be the first-ever 3-D printer in space,” Niki Werkheiser, 3-D Print project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a video.

The 3D printer will be sent to space to craft various items that astronauts need and some items that they don’t even know that they yet need.

Sometimes a tool in space breaks and the problem is that they may or may not have backups of that tool or part. The 3D printer allows them to print basically any tool or part that the may need.

“We’re starting with plastic with this first printer, but we will be moving to metals and other types of materials,” Werkheiser said.